FRN was born when several University of Maryland students noticed that campus dining halls were wasting nutritious food while community members were going hungry. So when campuses suddenly closed last spring, the food warriors didn’t stop. Recovering surplus food (nationally, more than four million pounds) and donating it to nonprofits is critically important, especially when food insecurity escalates. So FRN began working in other areas of the food system: it contacted farmers to support getting fresh food to those in need – without student leaders as hands on the ground. Companies with canceled events (and there were many) reached out to learn how they could do the right thing and donate unused food to hunger-fighting nonprofits. Pilot programs and partnerships launched in the fall to keep students engaged in the work: there is no wavering passion for food recovery – despite the tremendous uncertainty.
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